debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Out of all the visits to my homeland during the crisis, the trip at the end of summer of 2011 was the one that gave me the sense that Greece’s social fabric was close to tearing point. In June of that summer, the protests of thousands of Greeks outside Parliament were met with extensive repression [...]
Paul Krugman picks up on the Eurostat statistics on wages and wage developments in the private sector across Europe. He concludes that the experiment of an ‘internal wage devaluation’ which the Euro Area in particular is trying to practise is very hard to achieve since downwards nominal wage rigidities (DNWR) are preventing nominal wages from falling. [...]
A recent ECB household-wealth survey was interpreted by the media as evidence that poor Germans shouldn’t have to pay for southern Europe. This column takes a look at the numbers. Whilst it’s true that median German households are poor compared to their southern European counterparts, Germany itself is wealthy. Importantly, this wealth is very unequally [...]
According to new research undertaken by the Open Society Foundations there still is: Despite the different challenges facing European nations, the large majority of Europeans believe that standing in solidarity and working together is the best way of getting out of the current crises facing the continent. Two thirds (67 percent) of Europeans surveyed say [...]
From a study in (the medical journal) The Lancet: Greece, Spain, and Portugal adopted strict fiscal austerity; their economies continue to recede and strain on their health-care systems is growing. Suicides and outbreaks of infectious diseases are becoming more common in these countries, and budget cuts have restricted access to health care. By contrast, Iceland [...]
Watch investor and philanthropist George Soros discuss the Eurozone Crisis and the existential danger it poses for the European integration process.The talk was recorded in New York at the event ‘A Discussion on the Future of Europe,’ organized by the Center on Global Economic Goverenance, SIPA, Columbia University, with The Brookings Institution and World Leaders [...]
Watch former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou discuss the Eurozone Crisis and Greece’s role in it. The talk was recorded in New York at the event ‘A Discussion on the Future of Europe,’ organized by the Center on Global Economic Goverenance, SIPA, Columbia University, with The Brookings Institution and World Leaders Forum. The event took [...]
The Italian elections have again revealed the degree of political discontent with ‘austerity Europe’. The only good news, as Paolo Borioni made clear, is that in contrast to countries such as Greece Italy’s protest vote did not lead to a strengthening of extreme political forces. When I visited Athens about a week ago this graffiti [...]
It was in the IMF’s October 2012 World Economic Outlook (WEO), in Box 1.1 with the title “Are We Understanding Short-Term Fiscal Multipliers” that Olivier Blanchard and Daniel Leigh presented for the first time the findings of their study into the impact of fiscal consolidation on economic activity. Using data from 28 different economies – [...]
How Crisis Policies in Southern Europe Threaten the EU’s Social Dimension. The harsh austerity measures that, according to official policy, are supposed to overcome the euro crisis have once again plunged Europe into recession in 2012. Austerity policy has proved – in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain (GIPS) – to be primarily an attack on [...]
It was Friday September 2nd, 2011 when the troika of Greece’s creditors left Athens after two weeks of negotiations that failed to bridge the gap between the Greek government and the representatives of the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. Their last unscheduled departure was in June 2011 when Papandreou’s government went [...]
Daniel M. Knight writes that the Greek crisis has become a metaphor which many commentators use as a ‘shock tactic’ to press agendas of reform or austerity across Europe. This rhetoric simplifies the effects and intricacies of the crisis on the ground in Greece and ignores its relationship with past crises in Greek history. The Greek [...]
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